Silent
by Seil Noble
Summary: Behind the mask, Skull Kid was powerless. The silent struggle of Majora's puppet. Oneshot.


_Racing through the fields...  
Swinging from the trees...  
Laughter ringing through the empty forest...  
Memories of happy, bygone days..._

Skull Kid shivered. He could hear Tael sobbing quietly in the corner, and he would have cried, too, except that he'd used up all his tears long ago.  
_Tatl... Link... please...  
Free me._

_Hey! That isn't funny!  
Why'd you do that?  
Nobody's laughing!  
You're so mean! Just go away!_

Skull Kid was all alone.  
His friends, the Giants, had left him years ago, and he'd just been kicked out of the close-knit group of lost children inhabiting the Kokiri Forest.  
There was nobody to play with him...

"I don't care!" he yelled. "Who needs you, anyway? No sense of humor!" He kicked a tree and yelped in pain, grabbing his toe and falling on his butt.  
"Well it's your loss! Leaving me all alone like this. Hmph!"  
Rain started to fall, drop by drop landing on his grass hat. He scooted closer to the tree and hunched over, trying in vain to protect himself from the cold water gradually soaking him through.  
"All alone... I'm all alone..."  
Raindrops and teardrops mixed on Skull Kid's face.

The rain continued, and Skull Kid wandered out of the woods into an open field- big mistake. But he kept trudging on until he found a hollow, fallen log. Huddled in the corner, he shivered and cried softly while he waited for the rain to abate.  
_All alone... all alone... no one will play with me..._

Suddenly, two fairies flew into the log with him. As he watched, they jumped and turned around, realizing he was there as well.  
For what seemed like an eternity the three stared at each other. Their eyes communicated what words could not: the mutual understanding of three small souls alone in the big, fierce world.  
The two fairies dropped down to Skull Kid, and they sat curled up together like that until the rain stopped.

Many happy days followed. The sun came out, and the three friends lived without a care in the world.  
Their time was filled with joy, with laughter and games and tricks and fun. Tatl and Tael liked to play pranks as well, and they never got mad at Skull Kid. Ever. He felt loved and accepted for the first time in a long time, and those were some of the best days of his young and lonely life.

One day, they found a man walking through the woods with a large pack on his back.  
"Let's get him!" Skull Kid whispered to his friends. "I bet he's got something fun in that pack."

They ambushed and knocked out the Happy Mask man, and rifled through his pack. Skull Kid found mask after mask that looked fun and interesting, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something better inside.

Finally he found it.

The heart-shaped mask drew his eye with its color, and as soon as he laid his hand on it, he knew he'd found what he was looking for. The skull kid lifted it up and its eyes drew him in, a voice seeming to echo in his head.  
_What is your greatest wish?  
Power? Wealth? Success?_

Hahaha...  
You just want to be loved, don't you?  
Silly child.  
There is no such thing as love. You think they love you, but really they feel sorry for you. You're pitiful, really.  
But I can give you something better than love.

The dark, raspy voice suddenly shouted, and the mask's eyes flashed red.  
_Revenge._

Skull Kid jumped, dropping the mask and falling over onto his back.  
Curiosity made him sit up, crawl back over to the mask, and pick it up again.  
_Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you?  
Revenge on those who left you? Those who pushed you away?  
You'd be feared, then. You'd have more... friends... if you were feared.  
I can give you that. I can give you everything your heart desires.  
All you have to do is put on the mask._

Skull Kid felt himself pulling the mask ever closer to his face.

_Yes... yes... put on the mask, and your dreams will come true, child..._

He turned it around, and his nose touched the wood of the mask.

_YES!_

Suddenly it slammed onto his face, and he felt like his head was being squeezed between two rocks. He screamed, and a curtain of black obscured the world.

When he woke up, he was soaring through the treetops. He found he couldn't move his body. The presence in his head had taken over, and Skull Kid was its puppet.  
"Skull Kid, what are you doing?" Tatl asked, bewildered.

"Having fun with my new powers!" the mask replied in Skull Kid's voice.

"What? No! Give me back my body!" Skull Kid yelled. But his words were silent, without a physical mouth. Only he and the mask's spirit could hear.

_Why? I'm having such fun!_

"But it's my body! Give it back!"

_Silence! You were foolish and weak! It is your own fault that you lost your body, and I will not give it back!_

"You promised I would be happy!"

_Hah! I never promised that. I told you I would give you what you wanted._

"This isn't what I wanted!"

_I lied._

Skull Kid screamed, and nobody heard.

Days passed in a horrific succession of trick after trick, the mask becoming more and more wicked with each turn of the clock.  
Skull Kid tried and tried to regain control, but he was powerless against the mask's evil.

Tatl and Tael grew uneasy with this change in their friend. They tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen.

And the mask loved every minute of it.

A boy dressed in green rode through the woods on a bareback red horse. Skull Kid watched from the shadows, feeling sick with dread. Majora, the mask, was planning something, and Skull Kid had no idea what.  
He could only observe as the two fairies soared out and made the horse buck. Majora emerged from the shadows and laughed.

Skull Kid stared at the boy on the ground. A rush of memories ran through his mind.  
_The sound of an ocarina...  
Running through the Lost Woods...  
A short-lived friendship...  
Link...  
_"This guy...," Skull Kid said quietly.  
_WHAT? You're not allowed to say anything!  
_Majora shoved Skull Kid back again, knocking him out once more.

Tick... tock...

The clock ticked on for three days. Skull Kid fought Majora with more vigor than ever, desperate to help his old friend.  
If anyone could fix the problems he created, Link could.

The mask and the imp observed for three days. Majora was convinced that Link posed no threat, and wasn't worried.

That is, until the eve of the festival.

Majora laughed at Link.  
_As if that little spit could hurt me! This is a joke. I should just leave.  
_Skull Kid, for once, was silent. He didn't bother arguing; Link would prove himself soon enough.

"Swamp. Mountain. Ocean. Canyon. The four who are there. Bring them here."

"Stupid fairy! Don't speak out of line!"

"DON'T HURT MY FRIENDS!" Skull Kid roared.  
_As if you could stop me. Shut up._

_Snap!_A bubble popped right in Majora's face, surprising him for a moment. A moment was all Skull Kid needed. With all the strength he could muster, he shoved Majora out of control. In the brief struggle, Skull Kid's body went limp, and the ocarina fell from his hand. Majora was quick to hit back, though, and Skull Kid blacked out, hopelessness flooding him.

He half-woke a moment later to see the deku scrub that was Link pull out a strange wooden horn and play a short tune. A high ringing sound and a flash of light accompanied the song, and then the wooden boy was gone.

Skull Kid stared dully at the world through eyes he had no control of.

Majora laughed quietly as he looked up at the moon, so close he could almost touch it.

_It'll all be over soon, silly child. I've won._

Skull Kid wept, and nobody heard.


End file.
